Dan Buss
Pro Service Coach
Dan was born in Northbrook IL; his father was a machinist and manager of an Auto Parts business and knew everyone in town in the auto repair business. Dan grew up around gas stations and started pushing a broom, cutting grass, and pumping gas at the age of 10.
At 13 Dan left working at gas stations and started working at Bike shops, building, and repairing BMX bicycles and racing BMX Bikes. That was short-lived, and Dan returned to working at gas stations when he was 16 and was mainly pumping gas and doing oil changes and tires. Dan worked at several gas stations in the North Shore of Chicago and even managed a gas station at the age of 18. A year later Dan knew he wanted to expand his career and left the gas station business to become a B Technician at an Independent Repair Facility.
During that time Dan attended Community College at night while working during the day at several different independent repair facilities and dealerships. Dan earned his ASE Master Certification in 1990. In 1992 Dan met his soon-to-be wife while managing a 5-bay Amoco station in his hometown and married to his wife in 1993. In 1994 an opportunity came for Dan to manage a previous shop he had worked at as the lead technician and Dan made the move from Technician to Manager.
During the next 4 years, Dan grew that business from $350k a year to $1m a year out of four bays and the decision was made to move to a larger facility, so in 1998 the business was moved to a larger 11 bay stand-alone facility, during which time Dan became a partner in the business. To help himself learn and continue to grow the business, Dan joined a local Automotive group called Auto Value / Bumper to Bumper in 1996 and shortly became a local board member for the group and sat on the National board for several years. In 2003 Dan bought out his business partner and continued to educate himself and grow the business.
In 2009 Dan felt he wasn’t learning anymore from the local group and training seminars he attended and sought out a way to continue to learn from others and from a recommendation from a friend Dan joined Elite Pro Service in 2010. This is one of the best decisions Dan has ever made for himself, his family, and his business.
In 2012, 2 months before hosting a Pro Service Master Meeting at Dan’s location, Dan’s property that he was leasing was sold from underneath him and he only had 2 years left on the lease to figure out what he was going to find a new location. When Pro Service did the visit to his shop in April of 2012, instead of visiting the shop as normal, the group got into 2 vans and scouted possible locations and land for Dan to move the shop to. Back at the meeting room, the group then focused on which location would be the best to move the shop to and Dan received insight from 22 people at the meeting. The property wasn’t for sale, so Dan hired a broker, went after the property, and closed on the property in October. Dan flew to several shops in Pro service over the summer and got ideas for how he would build his new shop and in November of 2013, the company moved to its new 16 bay 14,200 sq. ft. building.
Dan was also very involved in the community, from being on the Chamber of Commerce Board, then becoming President of the Chamber of Commerce, to sponsoring almost every type of sport in the 3 surrounding towns to having fundraisers for local charities.
Dan’s passion is to help to better the Automotive Repair Industry for Independent Repair Facilities and began working with Pro Service facilitating maintenance meetings in 2022.
Later that year Dan and his wife Michelle decided that the time had come to sell D&R Autoworks and spend more time together and with their 2 daughters, Dani and her husband Brain, and Amanda who was just about to graduate from College. Dan has continued to help the colleagues of Pro Service and plans to for a long time to come.
